Windows 8.1 Upgrade - A Warning

winofiend

crawley
Maybe working on "important" things (see porn) during an install and before it is completed isn't wise should be the moral of this story...

No you can do that on linux. I heard you can even remove the video card and install a new one while not even turning the PC off with linux.

And no metro tiles, man, it's like a dream... you can even stick paper clips inside the case and they start to clean up your files.

I swear, I m moving to linux as soon as they something something.... the same thing thats been said for the last 15 years.

I tried linux 10 years ago because people were talking about how much a breeze it is. Runs faster, blah blah blah.

"You want to do what? Oh…"

-sigh-

Computers not intended for nerds. Turn on, run program. No blue screen of death, no forever spinning rainbow wheel.

IS that hard?

reply to post by winofiend


I think my post said that I was glad that MY PC came installed with 7 and that I was glad I told my mom to wait to install so I could be there to help her if she needed it. I was glad I did that now so she didn't make the same mistake and lose stuff like Wrabbit did. Some of the older generation do have issues with computers sometimes.

I am pretty sure that is what my post said since my PC does not have 8 on it at all. I don't troll....

My original post -

Kangaruex4Ewe
I bought a new pc about 2 years ago (around there) and it came with Windows 7 installed. My mom bought a pc about 2 months later and it came with Windows 8 installed. She has absolutely HATED it since then. She even went so far as to get a quote on how much a shop would charge her to downgrade to 7.

My pc with 7 installed was the first pc I've had in over 10 years. My last pc had Windows 98. I used a smartphone for years until then. I was able to pick up everything just like Windows 98 with a few exceptions and most of them were improvements. I figured mom was just complaining because she likes change as much as I would like to lose a limb. I rode on over ready to help her out and Windows 8 was just a whole remodel and it sucked IMO. It took me about 10 minutes to be thankful that my pc had come with 7 instead of 8.

I heard about the roll out of 8.1 and told her to wait to download it... from your post I am glad I did. I think Microsoft lost a ton of customers when they did a total revamp that only succeeded in making things more complicated/worse.

edit on 10/26/2013 by Kangaruex4Ewe because: (no reason given)

edit on 10/26/2013 by Kangaruex4Ewe because: (no reason given)

reply to post by boncho


The really worrying thing is I get that with win8. Oh 8.1 as I got the preview. I don't get any issues at all. No more than I got on win7. And I cannot go back to 7 after using 8.

The way it shuts down means it's turned on in less time than it took any previous windows. It is up and running flat out, or if I wake it up from sleep, it's back to where I left it. No starting, booting to the windows progress bar".. No spinning circles unless I have a billion things on start up. Drivers are a thing of the past for most things, I plug something in and there it is. Linux was the only other OS that did that fro basic things. But you get something that is not common, and your sol. Windows at least has generic drivers.

I never used the start menu. it was an obnoxious pita, but the programs in 8, I can rearange metro if I need to get to something by hitting the start button. Either on the screen or on the keyboard. And it's a lot easier to navigate. It's a lot easier to find things than it was ever on the start menu. That is *IS* I choose to open it. Having 2 monitors I go direct to the desktop anyway, as I auto load wmc. I see the metro interface maybe once a month..

Everything else is windows 7. Everything else is exactly where it was. Except it's a lot faster, and a lot more efficient. but no one who only used firefox and email will ever know this, because they see "TILES" and it scares them so they read other people bagging the tiles and then they feel justified in joining along, all the while not even having a clue...

I dunno about a mac tho... oO I'd be in the same boat as I am with linux with the little things that annoy me, not working. And dropping to a terminal and going nixy would lose it's value after a while. I get more and more uninsterested in linux the more and more it becomes a 'pretty' operating system. It's not fixing the issues that it's grown up with. It's hoping they fall off the edge.

That's what I don't get with people bagging 8. It's only their inability to use it and not the OS at all.

But I should be aware of this having migrated entire places over the years from 3.11 to xp and each and every time people compained about how it's all ugly and pointless and stupid because nothing is where they are used to it being. When I was being paid for listening to that it was ok.. ha.

But now people are trying to using their PC while performing an upgrade and its getting support along the lines of "Oh yeah thats terrible I'll never use M$ after hearing that!" and it just has to be a joke..

Oo

reply to post by Kangaruex4Ewe

I heard about the roll out of 8.1 and told her to wait to download it... from your post I am glad I did. I think Microsoft lost a ton of customers when they did a total revamp that only succeeded in making things more complicated/worse.

So..

From his post youi're glad you didn't go with 8.1?

Hahahah.. oh ..

you're all trolling.. I know it..

Why, again, are you glad you didn't download the 8.1 update? Because you can't install it and use the PC at the same time, for work?

You can't do that with 7 either.

winofiend
reply to post by Kangaruex4Ewe

 

I heard about the roll out of 8.1 and told her to wait to download it... from your post I am glad I did. I think Microsoft lost a ton of customers when they did a total revamp that only succeeded in making things more complicated/worse.

So..

From his post youi're glad you didn't go with 8.1?

Hahahah.. oh ..

you're all trolling.. I know it..

Why, again, are you glad you didn't download the 8.1 update? Because you can't install it and use the PC at the same time, for work?

You can't do that with 7 either.

You should be able to delay the reboot for 15 minutes like Wrabbit said. It did not allow him the total 15 minutes before it rebooted itself. Therefore work that had not been saved was lost. It really can't be that difficult to understand that one should have the amount of time to close programs and save work IF the option was given. I was glad that I waited so I will know what to expect and not count on getting 15 minutes. Now I can have everything closed and saved beforehand so she doesn't lose any unsaved work.

It was a helpful tip and I was appreciative. I don't expect to install a complete OS and keep everything running and saved. Now that I know you don't get 15 minutes, mistakes can be avoided. Why would I not be glad that I told her to wait? Now she will not lose any unsaved work.

reply to post by winofiend


The thread is giving other people some notice of the fact that once someone using Windows 8 starts the free upgrade (it's free if you own it now) by merely starting the download, it doesn't give another chance to pause until it's downloaded and then fully installed.

I expected a pause when it finished downloading and before it started an operation as large as an O/S upgrade.

I'd guess it took 20-30 minutes to install, and that was on SSD drives. So...45-60 minutes for normal drives I'd guess. That seemed pretty important to share, when just downloading doesn't usually force everything else that way. It IS a good upgrade if someone is aware of that issue.

reply to post by winofiend


When I am in Photoshop/Ai and I want to switch to desktop, and then back to excel, I just see tiles, or I have to bang my cursor in the sand or something else. I gave up on 8 after that. My mac lets me do fancy swipes with my hand, load 5 desktops if I want. Learning curve on that? 3 days. I used 8 for two weeks, didn't pick up the shortcuts, couldn't care less.

To each his own though.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Have you ever installed any update on Windows 8 before doing the upgrade? If it needs to restart it does exactly the same thing, it forces the restart, only the time given for the mandatory restart is some days (I don't remember how many) and not 15 minutes (that were exactly 15 minutes in my case).

PS: I never shut down my computer, I only suspend it.

reply to post by ArMaP


You know, now that you mention it? No? I hadn't... I haven't had this long enough to have made a Windows Update of any sort where I had anything else going on and didn't just click the Restart as a routine matter. Then again, small updates and all... I didn't expect issues on them.

Part of this was also just the speed that 3 gigs downloaded. I really expected that to take part of the night and then some. It figured, when I least needed it to, my ISP and MS severs clicked just right to make a max-speed connection all around. I'll bet I never see something that big run that fast again, either. It's always when least convenient on those things, isn't it? Never when you're in a big hurry and almost sitting to watch the download numbers to will them faster.

Linux is worth checking out. Just burn a live cd and give it a try. Fedora and Ubuntu both rock. Here's some shocking news.. when I update my system, a reboot is also required! Not a "You've got 15 minutes tick tock" reboot... just a "when you get around to it" type of thing. With tons of virii/malware targeting windows AND mac, linux is the clear choice for security.

cubey
Linux is worth checking out. Just burn a live cd and give it a try.

Been there, done that, back again.

winofiend
reply to post by Wrabbit2000

 

Wait.. So youi're performing an upgrade of an operasting system and then deciding it is bad and crap because it needs to reboot during the upgrade process.

And this causes people to say "I prefer XP." and "Oh my Linux time!"

Oh whatever....

I drove a car once, damn thing hit a brick wa;ll.. so much for "the breaks" whatever they are... stupid cars..

too true and I've Run ubuntu ultimate, knoppix, and bactrack from flashdrives
haters gonna hate

reply to post by Wrabbit2000

fess up wrabbit, 1st time for you?
Makpar had it even worse with his OSX Maverik upgrade
www.abovetopsecret.com...

vista was actually win 7 only half finished due to stockholders insisting on getting a new OS out


I find Win 8 to be the best so far for multiple reasons
faster install time
less incompatibility problems with older software

and best of all the enterprise version can be installed to a flash drive or
portable HDD [Windows To Go] and used on multiple computers

if my rig blows up I just boot the new computer up from my USB HDD
NO NEED TO INSTALL EVERYTHING ALL OVER AGAIN just the drivers.

running Windows 8 To Go [Enterprise] from a 320Gb HDD
on a HP 100B All-in-One PC 4GB RAM* w/1TB internal HDD* for my data
*upgrades

As far as updating to 8.1, I would actually recommend everyone do it. At least if you are on 8 already. Not sure what you had going on with the reboot happening slightly before the 15 minutes was up. However, I don't think Windows just arbitrarily decided to reboot so I would think something else happened there. Even if it did, it was a reboot, world didn't end. Technology sucks and pisses us off sometimes but that's just the way it is.

As far as someone saying that it is slower than previous versions. You could not be more wrong, this is the fastest version of Windows ever. The changes under the hood have made it drastically faster from the amount of time it takes to boot to running multiple programs to improvements in gaming as well. In addition drivers are more stable, multi screen support is better and a host of other improvements.

Now, as far as the interface itself, I get it. I know a lot of people don't like it. I don't blame them. I actually love the interface on Windows phone and tablets but wasn't crazy about them doing it on the desktop. However, I understand why they did it and I like it now. Everything you did before is still there. Instead of clicking on start and hovering over all programs, you can see you programs on your screen. Your home screen is now the start menu. It's that simple.

8.1 does allow you the option to set your computer to boot to desktop now so if you want, you never even have to go into the "modern" home screen. You can also set it to open desktop versions of programs instead of "modern" versions of the programs. For instance, you can use the old desktop version of IE with you r favorites menu and multiple tabs, etc, like you are used to from before. It even syncs with all other Windows devices and can transfer your favorites, home screen and apps to your other devices so everything is unified, if you want. Lots of changes, lots to learn, but lots of improvements from the previous versions of windows. It takes time that most people don't want to invest when they were content with what they had. Those that do, will find it is quicker, access to things are faster and it just works better.

They should have made the changes under the hood and kept the UI the same on the desktop, but it is what it is and a year from now it will make more sense to everyone. But upgrading from 8 to 8.1 is definitely recommended especially for those who aren't crazy about the changes.

winofiend
Everything else is windows 7. Everything else is exactly where it was.

It may look like Windows 7, but it's not Windows 7. I've seen far too many people complain that some games, drivers, or apps don't work in 8, that did in 7.

winofiend
Except it's a lot faster, and a lot more efficient.

I don't see how that's possible. Most modern computers bottleneck at the hard drive. With a Solid State Drive, everything in 7 is virtually instant when you click on it. You can't get faster than instant.

And as I stated in a previous thread, my Windows 7 boot time is somewhere around 10-15 seconds, but closer to 10, thanks to my SSD and instant BIOS.


As far as efficiency, Windows 7 can't really get much more efficient than what it already is. I have 16 GB of memory installed, and with all the things currently running on my PC, I'm presently using only 1.6 GB. That's phenomenal efficiency.

Windows 8 was designed for touch-screen computers. That includes tablets, laptops. and very few desktops that have a touch-screen.

If you don't have a touch-screen, then the best Windows operating system next to XP is Windows 7.


But, what it comes down to is what you're happy with. If you're happy with Windows 8, that's all that matters.

With the way Linux is gaining momentum and compatibility, Windows 7 will likely be my last version of Windows. Come on Linux. Get hot!

Thanks for the heads up, Wrabbit2000, I am sure quite a few people will be grateful they have read your reply before installing the update.

I'll be getting a new PC soon (my current one is 5 years old) and I have decided to stay with Windows 7, although I will be going with the 64-bit version this time. I thought about upgrading to Windows 8 but was put off after doing some research on the feedback from it. I have heard there are a lot of fixes with 8.1 and some of the reviews have been highly favourable. Nevertheless, I am very happy with Windows 7 (basically have had zero problems since I switched from the disaster that was Vista.)

_BoneZ_
I don't see how that's possible.

But it is. My computer came originally with Windows Vista (this time I didn't had the patience to build my own), and Windows 7 was slightly faster, specially in memory management (my computer has only 3 GB), but that got better in Windows 8 and, apparently, even better in Windows 8.1, as I have noticed a reduction in the time it takes to suspend and bring it back on when compared with the exact same situation 8 days ago.

Dark Ghost
Nevertheless, I am very happy with Windows 7 (basically have had zero problems since I switched from the disaster that was Vista.)

That is something I could never understand, why so many people reported problems with Vista when I (in both my home computer and all the computers with WIndows Vista at work) have never seen a problem with it.